Photographing soccer matches involves quick changes of focus and subjects that may be briefly obscured by foreground objects. The following autofocus settings are recommended:
Basic Settings
Autofocus mode : Continuous-servo AF (AF-C)
AF-area mode : 9-point dynamic-area AF
Custom Settings
a1 AF-C priority selection : Release
a3 Focus Tracking with lock-on : 2
a5 Focus point illumination > Dynamic-area AF display : On